Two new parliamentary reports are urging the government to take a closer look at threats to Canada's shorelines and its water from the oil and gas industry.
The studies, released separately yesterday by the Liberal party and a bipartisan Senate committee, were based on hearings and testimony from dozens of expert witnesses and stakeholders.
While the Liberal party report suggested that the oilsands development in Alberta was contaminating the Athabasca River watershed, the Senate report offered support for existing offshore drilling operations, with a warning that potential future exploration, including in the Arctic, must be strictly controlled and regulated.
The Liberal report on the oilsands said the federal government must immediately take action to crack down on air and water pollution from the industry by appointing an independent panel to oversee research and reporting by federal officials.
"In the final analysis, the story of the oilsands' relationship to water is very much a tale of denial by interested parties -private-sector and governmental -of the potential negative consequences the industry might be having on a vital Canadian resource," said the report.
Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said the issue of water pollution was one of his top priorities after being appointed to his position.
He has approved a $1.6 million investment in a new technology that would allow inspectors to identify chemical fingerprints of pollution and trace them back to specific industrial sites.
But Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, who spearheaded the oilsands study, questioned the government's sincerity, noting that Prentice had previously dismissed research from prominent water experts as unproven allegations.
"It's not the (Environment Canada) officials that we don't trust," said Scarpaleggia. "We don't trust their political masters to take the issue seriously."
Scarpaleggia added that claims about pollution originating from natural sources such as existing oilsands deposits were "fairy tales" told by the Harper government.
But a spokesman for Prentice said he has asked department officials to step up monitoring efforts, and that they have undertaken a number of new studies, including an analysis on the industry impact on air quality.
Meantime, Conservative and Liberal Senators were in agreement on their own study on offshore drilling in the aftermath of the BP offshore drilling accident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their report noted that the only offshore deepwater drilling operation on Canadian coastlines is a Chevron well more than 400 km northeastof St. John's, N.L.
It concluded that there was no evidence suggesting this operation should be banned or suspended, but acknowledged that there should be more analysis of the company's oil spill response plans.
